By BLOOMBERG NEWS

Published: January 18, 2008

Australian employment rose for a 14th month in December, adding to the longest hiring boom in almost three decades, which is fanning inflation and may force the central bank to raise borrowing costs next month. The number of people employed climbed by 20,100, after a revised 47,600 gain in November, the Bureau of Statistics said. The jobless rate fell to 4.3 percent from 4.5 percent. ''It's one more tick in the box for our view that the Reserve Bank will probably have to lift rates as early as February,'' said John Peters, senior economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. ''An ever-tighter labor market runs the risk of wage inflation.''